Method of making shoes



May 30, 1939. J. J. DUDENHOFEN METHOD OF MAKING SHOES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 22, 1 937 lm/nl 'or Jo/m JDuden/mfen A fffo'rne Patented May 30, 1939 UNITED STATES METHOD OF MAKING SHOES John J. Dudenhofen, St. Clair, Mo., assignor of thirty-seven and one-half per cent to John C.

Henley, St. Louis, Mo.

, and twenty-five per cent to George R. Ericson, Kirkwood, Mo. Application October 22, 1937, Serial No. 170,371

4 Claims.

This invention relates to methods of making shoes and particularly to a new method of making shoes whereby a properly shaped welt shoe can be produced by cementing without the necessity for sewing the welt to the upper.

The object of the invention is to produce a new and generally improved shoe and method of making the same.

A further object is to produce a welt shoe which 10, is properly shaped and in which the welt is cemented to the sole and to the upper.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following description and accompanying drawings referring to which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a shoe sole having a welt attached and recessed according to my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 except that it shows the welt 20 and sole before the recess or imprint has been formed.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 except that it shows the forming die in the act of making the imprint or recess in the welt.

Fig. 4 shows a section along the line 2--2 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig, 5 shows the completed sole and welt with the recess or imprint inverted ready to be applied to the upper.

Fig. 6 shows the upper as it is held in position on the last ready for the application of the sole and welt which are shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary view showing the welt attached to the sole before the indentation is 35 formed.

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 after the formation of the indentation or recess.

Fig. 9 shows the forming die in process of forming the recess in the welt.

Fig. 10 is a cross section of the front part of a shoe made according to myinvention.

Fig. 11 shows a piece of welt ready to be applied.

Fig. 12 is a fragmentary view showing the 45 manner in which the upper welt and sole are attached.

Fig. 13 shows a completed shoe, a part being broken away to show the manner in which the upper is applied to the welt and sole.

80 The reference numeral l indicates the leather outsole, which is usually referred to merely as the sole. In the performance of my method I first take the welt 2 and cement it to the forward part of the sole as indicated in Fig. 2. The cell ments which are available for this purpose at the present time have such great strength that nailing or sewing is quite unnecessary for the purpose of holding the shoe together so that I merely cement the welt in position as shown. After the cement has thoroughly dried or set, I prefer to 5 soften the welt by moistening with water or other liquid so that it will be capable of taking or retaining an imprint. A forming die 3 of metal, having a flange 4 is formed to the exact contour of the lower portion of the upper of the shoe 10 which is to be made and the sole is then placed on a plate 5 as indicatedin Figs. 4 and 9 and the forming die is forcibly pressed down onto the welt in such a manner as to form an imprint exactly the shape and size to receive the bottom of the 15 finished upper. For this purpose the forming die may be heated, if desired, and may be placed in a press of any suitable type to secure the required pressure. In this process the plate against which the sole is held may be perfectly flat or of any desired shape to produce the required sole formation. As will be noted, the forming die is provided with a flange H, which presses the outside of the welt fiat against the sole, While the lower part of the die sinks into the skived portion of the welt to form a recess. For most welt shoes,

a flat plate is entirely satisfactory. The finished soles are marked with the sizes or number of the die, etc., and stored until they are required.

In making the uppers, the usual process is followed except that, of course, the welt is not sewed to the upper. All the other usual parts of the upper, such as the sock lining I5, the box 6, the counter the insole 8, and the filler 9, are attached, and the leather outer covering of the as upper l0 together with any of these other parts, is nailed or otherwise attached to the insole 8, while the upper is in position on the last. After the upper has been completed and attached to the insole, it is left upon the last, but the nails which are used for the purpose of temporarily attaching certain parts of the upper and the insole to the last are removed, the nails or other means which are used to attach the upper to the insole are, of course, left in position. The upper is then ready to be applied to the sole which has previously been welted as above described.

In attaching the sole to the upper, a suitable coating of cement is applied around the lower portion of the upper and as much of the insole or filler as desired. The sole is accurately located in position with respect to the upper by means of the indentation, imprint or recess H which was formed by the forming die. Cement having been applied to the parts, the sole is pressed down onto the upper so that the recess ll just fits around the edge of the upper. Pressure is then applied by any suitable means until the cement has firmly secured the parts in position. It will, of course, be understood that the wooden last is not removed from the upper until after the cementing operation has been completed. When the cement has been thoroughly dried or set, the shoe is ready for the attachment of a heel and any other finishing operations.

In the application of the sole to the upper and cementing of these parts together, it will be understood that the application of great pres.- sure is required. The pressure is so great, in fact, that if the welt is first attached to the upper and then an attempt made to cement the assembly of these parts to the outsole, a transverse bending of the sole would invariably result so that the shoe would have a bulge in the sole and the welt would be curved upwardly before it had been worn. Moreover, prior to this invention it would not have been practical to try to attach the welt to the sole before attaching the sole to the upper because there would have been no means for properly locating the sole with respect to the upper without the formation of the imprint as herein described. For these reasons it has always been considered impossible to make a satisfactory welt shoe without sewing the welt to the upper, but'by the use of my new method a shoe or first quality can be produced without either sewing or nailing.

By the use of my invention, the soles and welts can be made up in large quantities and stored as it will be understood that the style changes in shoes relate chiefly to modification to the shape and style of the upper. The sole, the welt and the imprint in the welt remain substantially constantregardless of changesin style so that there would be no loss of previously built up soles and welts due to style changes.

I claim:

1. The method of making leather shoes which comprises the steps of first attaching the welt to the sole, and then making an imprint in the welt tov receive the upper.

2. The method of making leather shoes which comprises-the steps of first attaching the welt to the sole, next softening the welt and then making an imprint in the welt to receive the upper.

3. The method of making leather shoes which comprises the steps of first cementing the welt to the sole, next forming guide means in the welt to receive the upper and finally cementing the upper to the sole.

4. The method of'making leather shoes which includes the steps of first cementing the welt to the sole, next forming an imprint in the welt to receive the upper and afterwards cementing the upper to the sole.

JOHN J. DUDENHOFEN. 

